Reaction from first-team coach
Simon Bassey said AFC Wimbledon’s performance lacked desire today and was not a reflection of the fight his club has shown to rise against adversity.
Just two days after the great news was confirmed that Wimbledon would be returning to Plough Lane, a defeat to Stevenage brought everyone down to earth.
Speaking during an interview for Dons Player, Simon said: “It is very disappointing. The passion and desire that everyone has put into this club since we left Plough Lane 24 years ago was lacking from our team in the second-half. I am sitting here because the manager is so upset that he cannot come and talk about it. It (the performance) was not what we have been brought up on and what the club has been built on. It was not what Neal Ardley expects from his team and us as staff. We will be addressing that certainly.
“We have a good squad here, but we should be doing better than we showed in the second-half. It only gets sorted on the training ground. I am sure we will analyse the game and have a meeting with the players to make our points heard. I am sure the players have been left in no uncertain terms that it was not a Wimbledon performance that we want to see again.”
Simon defended goalkeeper Ben Wilson after the second-half error that turned out to be the winner for Stevenage.
“The ball has caught in the wind and bounced over his head,” said Wimbledon’s first-team coach. “People make mistakes and we are not going to blame him. It is a team game and from 1-14 we were not good enough. We did not do anything that we had spoken about at half-time. The wind was a big factor and we had it in the first-half. We scored a good goal, but we never did enough to try and push home the advantage.
“They made their change at half-time and played the conditions really well. They played League 2 football and asked us plenty of questions and we did not have enough answers for it.”
Full post-match reaction from Simon Bassey is now on Dons Player, along with an interview with Jon Meades.
Due to technical problems, unfortunately we were unable to broadcast WDON commentary today. We wish to apologise for this and we will be aiming to restore normal service at Newport County next Saturday.